Cellular communications system providing mobile cellular device battery saving features while accommodating user access requests and related methods

ABSTRACT

A cellular communications system may include at least one base station and at least one mobile cellular communications device. More particularly, the at least one mobile cellular communications device may include a controller, at least one user input device connected to the controller, and a wireless transceiver cooperating with the controller for attempting to establish a wireless communications link with at least one base station, and if the wireless communications link cannot be established, then continuing to attempt to establish the wireless communications link at a first attempt rate. Moreover, if a user provides a request to access the at least one base station via the at least one user input device, then the controller may continue to attempt to establish the wireless communications link based upon a second attempt rate greater than the first attempt rate.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of communications systems,and, more particularly, to cellular communications systems and relatedmethods.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Cellular communications systems continue to grow in popularity and havebecome an integral part of both personal and business communications.Cellular phones allow users to place and receive voice calls mostanywhere they travel. Moreover, as cellular telephone technology hasincreased, so too has the functionality of cellular devices. Forexample, many cellular devices now incorporate personal digitalassistant (PDA) features such as calendars, address books, task lists,etc. Moreover, such multi-function devices may also allow users towirelessly access electronic mail (email) messages and the Internet viaa cellular network.

Many such devices operate in an always-on, always-connected mode, inthat they are continuously trying to maintain service from the wirelessnetwork. However, this can lead to problems in that if a cellular basestation is administratively closed or otherwise unable to establish awireless communications link with such a device, then the device mayquickly run its battery down trying to continually establish the link.This may similarly occur if the cellular device cannot establish a linkbecause it is out of range of the base station, for example. In additionto the battery drain, in some circumstances this may result in wastednetwork resources as well.

Various approaches have been used in the prior art to address thisproblem. By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,146 is directed to amethod for conserving battery power in a mobile station searching toselect a serving cell. The mobile station varies the interval betweenscans for the beacon signals of cells in a communications system to savebattery power when the mobile station is searching to select a servingcell. The interval between scans is increased in response to the timeelapsed since the start of the search. Initially, the scans areconducted with a small interval therebetween in the hope of quicklyacquiring a serving cell. If a serving cell is not selected during thisinitial period of time, then the interval between scans is calculated toincrease in response to the increase in elapsed time since the start ofthe search. If a serving cell is not selected during this period ofcalculated intervals, then the interval is set to a maximum limit tosave battery power. The interval between scans may also be changed basedupon the quantity and signal strength of beacon signals provided byneighboring serving cells (i.e., base stations).

Despite the presence of such prior art systems, additional flexibilitymay be desired in some applications for varying scan rates for accessinga cellular base station to save battery power and reduce waste ofnetwork resources.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the foregoing background, it is therefore an object of thepresent invention to provide a cellular communications system providingenhanced mobile cellular communications device battery saving featuresand related methods.

This and other objects, features, and advantages in accordance with thepresent invention are provided by a cellular communications system whichmay include at least one base station and at least one mobile cellularcommunications device. More particularly, the at least one mobilecellular communications device may include a controller, at least oneuser input device connected to the controller, and a wirelesstransceiver cooperating with the controller for attempting to establisha wireless communications link with at least one base station. If thewireless communications link cannot be established, then the controllercontinues to attempt to establish the wireless communications link at afirst attempt rate. Moreover, if a user provides a request to access theat least one base station via the at least one user input device, thenthe controller may continue to attempt to establish the wirelesscommunications link based upon a second attempt rate greater than thefirst attempt rate.

Accordingly, the mobile cellular communications device advantageouslyattempts to establish the wireless communications link more often when auser requires access to the base station. By way of example, the accessrequest may be a request to place a telephone call, as well as requestto send an electronic mail (email) message (i.e., placing an emailmessage in an outbound queue). Otherwise, if the user does not need toinitiate wireless communications, the controller uses the slower, firstaccess rate to reduce battery drain. The at least one user input devicemay be a keypad, for example.

In accordance with another advantageous aspect of the invention, thecontroller may also successively decrease at least one of the first andsecond attempt rates after each unsuccessful attempt to establish thewireless communications link. Such a step down in the attempt rate mayprovide further battery savings for the mobile cellular communicationsdevice. The cellular communications system may further include a centralswitching station for interfacing the at least one base station with awired communications network, such as a public-switched telephonenetwork (PSTN) or the Internet, for example. Further, the wirelesscommunications link may be for data service or voice service.

A method aspect of the invention is for using a mobile cellularcommunications device including at least one user input device, such asthe one described briefly above. The method may include attempting toestablish a wireless communications link with at least one base station,and if the wireless communications link cannot be established, thencontinuing to attempt to establish the wireless communications link at afirst attempt rate. Furthermore, if a user provides a request to accessthe at least one base station via the at least one user input device,continuing attempts to establish the wireless communications link may bemade based upon a second attempt rate greater than the first attemptrate.

A mobile cellular communications device, such as the one describedbriefly above, as well as a related computer-readable medium, are alsoprovided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a cellularcommunications system in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a mobile cellularcommunications device of the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an alternate embodimentof the mobile cellular communications device of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram illustrating another alternateembodiment of the mobile cellular communications device of FIG. 2.

FIGS. 5-7 are block diagrams illustrating cellular communications methodaspects of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic block diagram illustrating further aspects of amobile cellular communications device suitable for use with the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which preferred embodimentsof the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied inmany different forms and should not be construed as limited to theembodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided sothat this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fullyconvey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Likenumbers refer to like elements throughout, and prime and multiple primenotation are used to indicate similar elements in alternate embodiments.

Referring initially to FIGS. 1, 2, and 5, a first embodiment of acellular communications system 20 in accordance with the presentinvention is now described. The cellular communications system 20illustratively includes a base station 21 (illustratively represented asa cell tower) for communicating with a mobile cellular communicationsdevices 22. In the illustrated example, the mobile cellularcommunications device 22 is a Blackberry device, which allows a user tonot only place and receive voice calls, but also to access otherservices such as electronic mail (email) and Internet browsing via thebase station 21.

In this regard, the system 20 further includes a central switchingstation 23 which interfaces the base station 21 (and, thus, the mobilecellular communications device 22), with a “wired” network such as apublic-switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or the Internet, forexample. That is, the central switching station 23 includes theappropriate switching and control circuitry for routing voice calls toand from the mobile cellular communications device 22, as will beappreciated by those skilled in the art. It may further include anemail/Web server (not shown) for providing access to email or Webcontent on the mobile cellular communications device 22 via the basestation 21, as will also be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

It should be noted that while only a single mobile cellularcommunications device 22 and a single base station 21 are shown forclarity of illustration, a typical cellular communications system willinclude numerous base stations which allow numerous cellularcommunications devices to obtain service from the network as they movefrom one location to another, as will be appreciated by those skilled inthe art. Moreover, the various functions performed by the centralswitching station 23 may in fact be distributed among more than onestation or location, as will also be appreciated by those skilled in theart. In addition, numerous other types of cellular devices may be usedin accordance with the present invention as well, and such devices neednot have access to all of the above-noted services (i.e., voice, email,and Internet browsing) in all embodiments.

The mobile cellular communications device 22 illustratively includes awireless transceiver 24 and associated antenna 25, and a controller 26connected to the wireless transceiver. The controller 26 cooperates withthe wireless transceiver 24 to communicate with the base station 21, aswill be appreciated by those skilled in the art. By way of example, thecontroller 26 may be implemented using a microprocessor and/or othersuitable control circuitry with associated memory, as will be discussedfurther in the example provided below with reference to FIG. 8.

The mobile cellular communications device 22 further illustrativelyincludes a user input device 27 connected to the controller 26. In thecase of the illustrated Blackberry device, the user input device 27includes a keypad 28 and a trackwheel 29, though both need notnecessarily be used for every user initiated operation, as will beappreciated by those skilled in the art. Of course, other user inputdevices 27 may be used as well, such as touch screens, etc., as will beappreciated by those skilled in the art.

Among other functions, the user input device 27 allows a user to placevoice calls, type emails and queue them up for transmission to the basestation 21, and/or request access to a Web page, for example, dependingupon a given implementation. The mobile cellular communications device22 also illustratively includes a display 30 which cooperates with thecontroller 26 to display telephone numbers, email text, Web pagecontent, etc., as will also be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

The base station 21 may communicate with the central switching station23 via dedicated communications links, such a fiber optic links, freespace optical (FSO) links, etc. The base station 21 has one or moreantennas 31 and a transceiver (not shown) associated therewith for usein communication with the mobile cellular communications device 22, aswill be appreciated by those skilled in the art. Various cellularformats and/or protocols may be used in accordance with the presentinvention, as will be discussed further below.

In particular, the present invention may be particularly advantageousfor mobile cellular communications devices 22 that operate in accordancewith different cellular formats, as they may perform multiple scanoperations to determine what formats are offered in their presentvicinity. That is, this may otherwise lead to significant battery drainand/or wasted network resources in some instances, which may be reducedin accordance with the present invention, as will be discussed furtherbelow.

More particularly, beginning at Block 50, when the mobile cellularcommunications device 22 is first turned on or enters a new cell area,for example, the device performs a scan to detect a beacon signaltransmitted by the base station 21 so that it may establish a wirelesscommunications link (i.e., obtain service) from the base station (Block51), as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art. Additionally,the mobile cellular communications device 22 will typically be set sothat it will not establish a wireless communications link if a QoS levelof signals received from the base station 21 is below a desiredthreshold. For example, a low QoS level may be indicative of a high biterror rate. Of course, other QoS measurements (e.g., delay, bandwidth,etc.) may also be used, as will be appreciated by those skilled in theart.

In some circumstances, the base station 21 may selectively deny attemptsby the mobile cellular communications device 22 to establish a wirelesscommunications link therewith. By way of example, this may occur when anavailable capacity of the base station 21 falls below a capacitythreshold, meaning that the base station is too busy to communicate withnew devices. This may also result when the base station 21 isadministratively closed by cellular network personnel, but stillacknowledges access requests from cellular devices, which may occur forvarious reasons that will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

As noted above, multi-function devices such as Blackberry devices maynot only be enabled for wireless voice service, but they may also beenabled for wireless data service (e.g., email data, Internet data,etc.) as well. Thus, such devices establish different wirelesscommunications links with the base station 21 depending upon the type ofservice that is being provided, as the format of the signals beingtransferred will be different for different types of services, as willbe appreciated by those skilled in the art.

Accordingly, in some instances, a base station may allow a wirelesscommunications link to be established for voice service, but not fordata service, and vice-versa. For example, some cellular serviceproviders allow each others' customers to access their base stations forvoice service, so that both providers can provide greater coverageareas. However, the data service provided by one service provider maynot be compatible with the other provider's network. In such case, thebase station 21 would allow a wireless communications link to beestablished with a wireless communications device 22 associated with adifferent network for voice service, but not data service. Furthermore,the base station 21 may allow the establishment of one kind of dataservices such as email which can tolerate relatively high delay and biterror rate, but may not allow other kinds of data service such asrealtime video which requires high bandwidth and low delays.

For whatever reason, when the base station 21 denies a request toestablish a wireless communications link therewith, it preferably sendsa denial message for the denied attempt. The denial message may takevarious forms. For example, if the base station 21 is simply too busy toestablish the new link, it may provide an acknowledgement (i.e., an ACK)of the request from the mobile cellular communications device 22, alongwith an indication that the link cannot be established at that time, asthe denial message. Alternately, if the mobile cellular communicationsdevice 22 and the base station 21 do not operate using the same protocol(e.g., the base station does not belong to the user's cellular serviceprovider), then the base station may return an authentication failuresignal a NAK) as the denial message.

In accordance with the invention, if the mobile cellular communicationsdevice 22 receives a denial message from the base station 21 in responseto its attempt to establish a wireless communications link, at Block 52,the controller 26 continues to attempt to establish the wirelesscommunications link at a first attempt (i.e., scan) rate, at Block 53.This wireless communications link may be for voice service or dataservice, as noted above. Yet, if the wireless communications link cannotbe established with the desired QoS level, but no denial message isreceived (Block 54), then the controller 26 continues to attempt toestablish the wireless communications link at a second attempt ratewhich is different than the first attempt rate, at Block 55.

That is, the controller 26 advantageously differentiates the reasons foran unsuccessful attempt to establish a wireless communications link, andit uses different attempt rates based upon the particular reason for theunsuccessful attempt. Thus, for example, where the QoS level is thereason the attempt is unsuccessful, and this is due to the fact that theuser is passing from one cell coverage area to another (e.g., in amoving vehicle) or the signal is obstructed, as noted above. In suchcases, the QoS level will typically remain below the desired thresholdonly for a relatively short time.

On the other hand, if the base station 21 denies the request toestablish the wireless communications link, the time before the basestation will be ready to establish the wireless communications link willin many circumstances be longer. Indeed, if a NAK is received, themobile cellular communications device will need to move to a differentlocation in which a compatible base station is operating before awireless communications link may be obtained (excluding the case ofemergency communications, in which device types associated with onecellular service provider may be allowed to communicate with basestations of another). The same may also be true of other reasons fordenials by the base station 22 to establish wireless communicationslinks.

As such, the first attempt rate may advantageously be less than thesecond attempt rate, although this need not be the case in allimplementations. If the QoS level is above the desired threshold, and nodenial message is received from the base station 21 responsive to therequest to establish the wireless communications link, the wirelesscommunications link is established, thus concluding the illustratedmethod (Block 56).

Although the method is shown as concluding at Block 56, it should benoted that the controller 26 may continue to cooperate with the wirelesstransceiver 24 for determining if the QoS level of the wirelesscommunications link, once established, falls below the desired QoSlevel. If it does, then the controller 22 may attempt to re-establishthe wireless communications link with the desired QoS level at thesecond attempt rate based thereon, as similarly described above. Thesame may also be done using the first access rate if the wirelesscommunications link, once established, is terminated by the base station22 due to an administrative closing, for example, as will be appreciatedby those skilled in the art.

Of course, it should be noted that in certain circumstances the reasonfor an unsuccessful attempt to establish a wireless communications linkmay not result in a denial message being received, or from a QoSproblem. For example, if the base station 21 is taken offline formaintenance, etc., the mobile cellular communications device 22 willreceive no signals from the base station 21 at all. In such case, thecontroller 26 could be set to simply determine that the QoS level isbelow the desired threshold, in which case the second access rate isused, or the controller could default to the first access rate,whichever is most appropriate for the particular implementation. Itshould also be noted that the controller 26 could also switch fromeither of the first or second access rates to some lower minimum rate(s)if the wireless communications link is not established within a certainperiod of time, to provide still further battery and/or network resourceusage savings.

Turning to FIGS. 3 and 6, another embodiment of the cellularcommunications system 20′ is now described. As noted above, the mobilecellular communications device 22′ illustratively includes a user inputdevice(s) 27′ connected to the controller 26′. Beginning at Block 60,the controller 26′ cooperates with the wireless transceiver 24′ forattempting to establish the wireless communications link with the basestation 22, as also discussed above. If the wireless communications linkcannot be established (Block 62), for whatever reason (e.g., QoS level,denial, etc.), then the controller 26′ continues to attempt to establishthe wireless communications link at a first attempt rate, at Block 63.

If while the controller 26′ is still attempting to establish thewireless communications link a user provides a request to access thebase station 21 via the user input device 27′, at Block 64, then thecontroller continues to attempt to establish the wireless communicationslink based upon a second attempt rate greater than the first attemptrate, at Block 65. Thus, for example, if the user attempts to place avoice call, or queues up an email message for delivery, then thecontroller 26′ will attempt to establish the wireless communicationslink more often than if the user does not otherwise need to initiatewireless communications. The illustrated method concludes upon theestablishment of the wireless communications link, at Block 65.

Still another embodiment of the present invention is now described withreference to FIGS. 4 and 7. More particularly, beginning a Block 70, thecontroller 26″ cooperates with the wireless transceiver 24″ forattempting to establish a wireless communications link with the basestation 22, at Block 71, as described above. If the wirelesscommunications link cannot be established, at Block 72, then thecontroller 26″ continues to attempt to establish the wirelesscommunications link at an attempt rate which decreases following eachunsuccessful attempt, at Block 73. Stated alternately, the controller26″ successively steps down the access rate after each unsuccessfulattempt to establish the communications link. Otherwise, the illustratedmethod is concluded, at Block 74.

The present invention may advantageously be implemented as acomputer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions forcausing a mobile communications device 22 to perform the steps describedabove. Moreover, it will also be appreciated that aspects describedseparately above with respect to separate embodiments for clarity ofillustration may be combined in some applications. For example, thecontroller 22 may also increase one or both of the first and secondaccess rates responsive to an access request from a user, as describedwith reference to FIG. 6, and/or successively decrease one or both ofthese rates after each unsuccessful attempt to establish the wirelesscommunications link, as described with reference to FIG. 7.

Example

Turning now additionally to FIG. 8,. additional aspects of an exemplaryhand-held mobile cellular communications device 1000 (i.e., a Blackberrydevice) that can be used in accordance with the present invention arenow described. The device 1000 illustratively includes a housing 1200, akeyboard 1400 and an output device 1600. The output device shown is adisplay 1600, which is preferably a full graphic LCD. Other types ofoutput devices may alternatively be utilized. A processing device 1800is contained within the housing 1200 and is coupled between the keyboard1400 and the display 1600. The processing device 1800 controls theoperation of the display 1600, as well as the overall operation of themobile device 1000, in response to actuation of keys on the keyboard1400 by the user.

The housing 1200 may be elongated vertically, or may take on other sizesand shapes (including clamshell housing structures). The keyboard mayinclude a mode selection key, or other hardware or software forswitching between text entry and telephony entry.

In addition to the processing device 1800, other parts of the mobiledevice 1000 include a communications subsystem 1001; a short-rangecommunications subsystem 1020; the keyboard 1400 and the display 1600,along with other input/output devices 1060, 1080, 1100 and 1120; as wellas memory devices 1160, 1180 and various other device subsystems 1201.The mobile device 1000 is preferably a two-way RF communications devicehaving voice and data communications capabilities. In addition, themobile device 1000 preferably has the capability to communicate withother computer systems via the Internet.

Operating system software executed by the processing device 1800 ispreferably stored in a persistent store, such as the flash memory 1160,but may be stored in other types of memory devices, such as a read onlymemory (ROM) or similar storage element. In addition, system software,specific device applications, or parts thereof, may be temporarilyloaded into a volatile store, such as the random access memory (RAM)1180. Communications signals received by the mobile device may also bestored in the RAM 1180.

The processing device 1800, in addition to its operating systemfunctions, enables execution of software applications 1300A-1300N on thedevice 1000. A predetermined set of applications that control basicdevice operations, such as data and voice communications 1300A and1300B, may be installed on the device 1000 during manufacture. Inaddition, a personal information manager (PIM) application may beinstalled during manufacture. The PIM is preferably capable oforganizing and managing data items, such as e-mail, calendar events,voice mails, appointments, and task items. The PIM application is alsopreferably capable of sending and receiving data items via a wirelessnetwork 1401. Preferably, the PIM data items are seamlessly integrated,synchronized and updated via the wireless network 1401 with the deviceuser's corresponding data items stored or associated with a hostcomputer system.

Communication functions, including data and voice communications, areperformed through the communications subsystem 1001, and possiblythrough the short-range communications subsystem. The communicationssubsystem 1001 includes a receiver 1500, a transmitter 1520, and one ormore antennas 1540 and 1560. In addition, the communications subsystem1001 also includes a processing module, such as a digital signalprocessor (DSP) 1580, and local oscillators (LOs) 1601. The specificdesign and implementation of the communications subsystem 1001 isdependent upon the communications network in which the mobile device1000 is intended to operate. For example, a mobile device 1000 mayinclude a communications subsystem 1001 designed to operate with theMobitex™, Data TAC™ or General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) mobile datacommunications networks, and also designed to operate with any of avariety of voice communications networks, such as AMPS, TDMA, CDMA, PCS,GSM, etc. Other types of data and voice networks, both separate andintegrated, may also be utilized with the mobile device 1000.

Network access requirements vary depending upon the type ofcommunication system. For example, in the Mobitex and DataTAC networks,mobile devices are registered on the network using a unique personalidentification number or PIN associated with each device. In GPRSnetworks, however, network access is associated with a subscriber oruser of a device. A GPRS device therefore requires a subscriber identitymodule, commonly referred to as a SIM card, in order to operate on aGPRS network.

When required network registration or activation procedures have beencompleted, the mobile device 1000 may send and receive communicationssignals over the communication network 1401. Signals received from thecommunications network 1401 by the antenna 1540 are routed to thereceiver 1500, which provides for signal amplification, frequency downconversion, filtering, channel selection, etc., and may also provideanalog to digital conversion. Analog-to-digital conversion of thereceived signal allows the DSP 1580 to perform more complexcommunications functions, such as demodulation and decoding. In asimilar manner, signals to be transmitted to the network 1401 areprocessed (e.g. modulated and encoded) by the DSP 1580 and are thenprovided to the transmitter 1520 for digital to analog conversion,frequency up conversion, filtering, amplification and transmission tothe communication network 1401 (or networks) via the antenna 1560.

In addition to processing communications signals, the DSP 1580 providesfor control of the receiver 1500 and the transmitter 1520. For example,gains applied to communications signals in the receiver 1500 andtransmitter 1520 may be adaptively controlled through automatic gaincontrol algorithms implemented in the DSP 1580.

In a data communications mode, a received signal, such as a text messageor web page download, is processed by the communications subsystem 1001and is input to the processing device 1800. The received signal is thenfurther processed by the processing device 1800 for an output to thedisplay 1600, or alternatively to some other auxiliary I/O device 1060.A device user may also compose data items, such as e-mail messages,using the keyboard 1400 and/or some other auxiliary I/O device 1060,such as a touchpad, a rocker switch, a thumb-wheel, or some other typeof input device. The composed data items may then be transmitted overthe communications network 1401 via the communications subsystem 1001.

In a voice communications mode, overall operation of the device issubstantially similar to the data communications mode, except thatreceived signals are output to a speaker 1100, and signals fortransmission are generated by a microphone 1120. Alternative voice oraudio I/O subsystems, such as a voice message recording subsystem, mayalso be implemented on the device 1000. In addition, the display 1600may also be utilized in voice communications mode, for example todisplay the identity of a calling party, the duration of a voice call,or other voice call related information.

The short-range communications subsystem enables communication betweenthe mobile device 1000 and other proximate systems or devices, whichneed not necessarily be similar devices. For example, the short-rangecommunications subsystem may include an infrared device and associatedcircuits and components, or a Bluetooth™ communications module toprovide for communication with similarly-enabled systems and devices.

Many modifications and other embodiments of the invention will come tothe mind of one skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachingspresented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings.Therefore, it is understood that the invention is not to be limited tothe specific embodiments disclosed, and that modifications andembodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appendedclaims.

1-22. (canceled)
 23. A communications system comprising: at least onebase station; and at least one mobile cellular communications devicecomprising a controller, at least one input device coupled to saidcontroller, and a wireless transceiver coupled to said controller, saidcontroller configured to cooperate with said at least one input deviceand said wireless transceiver to attempt to establish a wirelesscommunications link with said at least one base station, and if thewireless communications link cannot be established, then continue toattempt to establish the wireless communications link at a first attemptrate, and if a request to access said at least one base station isprovided via said at least one input device, then continue to attempt toestablish the wireless communications link based upon a second attemptrate greater than the first attempt rate.
 24. The communications systemof claim 23 wherein the request to access comprises a request to place atelephone call.
 25. The communications system of claim 23 wherein therequest to access comprises a request to send an electronic mail (email)message.
 26. The communications system of claim 23 wherein said at leastone input device comprises a keypad.
 27. The communications system ofclaim 23 wherein said controller is configured to successively decreaseat least one of the first and second attempt rates after eachunsuccessful attempt to establish the wireless communications link. 28.The communications system of claim 23 further comprising a centralswitching station for interfacing said at least one base station with awired communications network.
 29. The communications system of claim 23wherein the wireless communications link is for data service.
 30. Thecommunications system of claim 23 wherein the wireless communicationslink is for voice service.
 31. A mobile communications devicecomprising: a controller; at least one input device coupled to saidcontroller; and a wireless transceiver coupled to said controller; saidcontroller configured to cooperate with said at least one input deviceand said wireless transceiver to attempt to establish a wirelesscommunications link with at least one base station, and if the wirelesscommunications link cannot be established, then continue to attempt toestablish the wireless communications link at a first attempt rate, andif a request to access said at least one base station is provided viasaid at least one input device, then continue to attempt to establishthe wireless communications link based upon a second attempt rategreater than the first attempt rate.
 32. The mobile communicationsdevice of claim 31 wherein the request to access comprises a request toplace a telephone call.
 33. The mobile communications device of claim 31wherein the request to access comprises a request to send an electronicmail (email) message.
 34. The mobile communications device of claim 23wherein said at least one input device comprises a keypad.
 35. Themobile communications device of claim 23 wherein said controller isconfigured to successively decrease at least one of the first and secondattempt rates after each unsuccessful attempt to establish the wirelesscommunications link.
 36. A method for operating a mobile communicationsdevice comprising: using a controller to attempt to establish a wirelesscommunications link with at least one base station, and if the wirelesscommunications link cannot be established, then continue to attempt toestablish the wireless communications link at a first attempt rate; andif a request to access the at least one base station is provided via atleast one input device, then using the controller to continue to attemptto establish the wireless communications link based upon a secondattempt rate greater than the first attempt rate.
 37. The method ofclaim 36 wherein the request to access comprises a request to place atelephone call.
 38. The method of claim 36 wherein the request to accesscomprises a request to send an electronic mail (email) message.
 39. Themethod of claim 36 wherein the at least one input device comprises akeypad.
 40. The method of claim 36 further comprising using thecontroller to successively decrease at least one of the first and secondattempt rates after each unsuccessful attempt to establish the wirelesscommunications link.
 41. A non-transitory computer-readable mediumhaving computer-executable instructions for causing a mobilecommunications device to perform steps comprising: attempting toestablish a wireless communications link with at least one base station,and if the wireless communications link cannot be established, thencontinuing to attempt to establish the wireless communications link at afirst attempt rate; and if a request to access the at least one basestation is provided via at least one input device, then continuing toattempt to establish the wireless communications link based upon asecond attempt rate greater than the first attempt rate.
 42. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 41 wherein the requestto access comprises a request to place a telephone call.
 43. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 41 wherein the requestto access comprises a request to send an electronic mail (email)message.
 44. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 41further comprising successively decreasing at least one of the first andsecond attempt rates after each unsuccessful attempt to establish thewireless communications link.